Work on to divert river course to save Chakki bridge pillars

Rajiv Mahajan

NURPUR, JULY 17

The inter-state Chakki bridge at Kandwal in Nurpur district is strategically important as it not only links Pathankot with Leh and Ladakh forward areas but also connects Himachal Pradesh with Punjab. The bridge was recently closed for movement of all vehicles.

Inquiries reveal that stone crusher units set up in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh jurisdiction near Chakki rivulet have played havoc with the water body as these units have been indulging in illegal mining for the past many years.

Environmentalists and local villagers had submitted several memorandums and complaints to the state authorities demanding declaration of Chakki rivulet a ‘no-mining zone’ but all went unheeded.

This inter-state Chakki NH bridge had been constructed at a cost of Rs 38 crore around 12 years ago by the state Public Works Department which claimed its life span to be 80 years but within such a short period of time this bridge has come under threat and crores of rupees spent by the NHAI during the past 10 months for the safety of two exposed pillars seem to have gone down the drain due to fierce flash floods and repeated change of course by the rivulet during monsoon.

Owing to the indiscriminate mining in the riverbed, big and deep trenches have been created and the rivulet has changed its course towards pillars 1 and 2 of the bridge. The bridge has 17 pillars.

The NHAI, through its construction company, has been struggling round the clock for diverting the river course towards pillars 5 and 6 by deploying land excavating machinery.

Vikas Surjewala, project director, NHAI, Palampur, said that apart from diverting rivulet water towards pillars 5 and 6, protection work with mass concrete to save pillars 1 and 2 was in progress.